Kate asked Anthony Paolucci:

Of all the books you've written, what character do you think most accurately resembles yourself?

Anthony Paolucci This one is a challenge to answer. Most writers inject a piece of themselves into every character they create. In my case, I feel as if I've injected a tiny piece of my soul in each and every one. If my books were horcruxes, you could destroy me forever by erasing these stories from the world. "Shy Boy" is based on me and my crippling shyness in school - I really used to own a Jackson chameleon and would fantasize about turning invisible. Sally from the Creatureon trilogy is me as a kid in elementary school, feeling looked-down on by the other people in my classes and wishing I was every bit as good as them, in all the ways I wanted to be. Mallory from "Mallory's Gallery" is me in my black garb every day having to answer for my "dark" interests, humor and appearance. "Jack of the Crawlies" is me retreating to the woods behind my mother's house as a boy and living out my adventure fantasies. But the character who most resembles me is Gabriel Thorn. The story itself came about by accident - it was never meant to be a book. I had wanted to create a character who represented all my favorite fantasy elements, those being Elves, vampires, and werewolves. Then I wanted to construct a world in which he lived as some type of conflicted, troubled anti-hero. What became the story was meant to be a series of made-up journal entries. When things got too real, I would sit down at my word processor and just write about Gabriel's day, his thoughts. It was a mental and creative retreat. He was my "fantasy Anthony," who I would be in my perfect fictional universe. But I got carried away with the idea of making a comic book series, and so a plot accidentally formed. At the back of the novel is a short story, which is made up of the three "journal entries" I had written before turning the concept into a novel. So the long answer to your question is Gabriel Thorn.

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